Oksana Blomdalen

Doing what I can to keep a habit😄

I’m allergic to words “productivity” and “goals”.

I used to be crazy about those kinds of things. I thought career advancements and achievements will make me genuinely happy and fulfilled. They didn’t.

Moreover I had a burnout and realized that my goals are not really mine anymore.

But I wasn’t. I took my time to really get to know myself and learn what would make me fulfilled. Then the russian war in Ukraine started and I was focused on totally different things but that’s a whole other story.

I had this belief that if I abandon a goal, everyone will be disappointed. Turns out I was projecting and it is actually me who would get disappointed.

Bottom line is that I’m still allergic to productivity. So what do I do instead?

I don’t have goals or a todo list.

I make “My enthusiasms” list.

I list all the things that excite me greatly and I wish to do more often. Things like genealogy, singing, playing sims, things I want to learn, projects, things I want to journal about. I do not set deadlines, nor do I make resolutions. 

I just pick up whatever interests me at the moment and do it. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes for a few days. As long as it feels fun.

Then I leave it for the next thing or whatever life throws at me at the time.

But I come back.

This way I don’t have to feel like I’ve abandoned my interests but at the same time I don’t feel the pressure of seeing it as a goal that has to be achieved.

Works like a charm. 

Trying

Watching “Eat Pray Love”, the same movie that made me fall in love with Italian language a long time ago. I always watch the Italy part and then stop when she goes to India.

I love the idea of dividing the year into smaller seasons.

Prior to the Gregorian calendar, farmers in China and Japan broke each year down into 24 sekki or “small seasons”. These seasons didn’t use dates to mark seasons, but instead, they divided up the year by natural phenomena.

There is something different in the forgotten habit of old-school blogging.

Just having your own space on the Internet where you are not threatened by being lost in the algorithm.

Where you write your own thoughts and forget perfectionism and not worry about having “good enough” things to post.

I’ve been reading a lot of old-school blogs and Patrick Rhone’s blog especially is like a breath of fresh air.

Some posts are deeply thought provoking and life changing and some resemble regular instagram stories that are imperfect and “in the moment”.

There are no likes, no comments, he posts what he feels like and it feels like “his own territory”.

I want to have my own territory.

To not be worried about the platform someday being bought by some weirdo and having to move to another.

This is what blogging used to be.

Why did it change?

So this is not what  i had in mind for my first blogpost but i am currently learning how WordPress works and i’ve decided that i’ll be testing it right here.

I’ve recently started testing a meal replacement called Huel. You have probably heard of it – nutritiously complete meals that are affordable and easy to make (literally just mixing some powder with water and shaking/blending it together).

My primary reason is not losing weight (although it would be a great bonus). My primary reason is eliminating my everyday struggle of “What should i eat?” and stopping with eating chips and other unhealthy snacks. I have never been good at cooking and especially at making weekly meal plans. I admire those uber-organized people who do meal prep and not get tired of buying groceries/cooking every day. But i am not one of them and eating healthy has never been easy for me. 

So, right now i’m testing this Huel thing. When i ordered it i desperately wanted to like it. After all, that would be a solution to a lot of my problems.

I chose the Black edition of Huel, the one without artificial sweeteners. Did some research on reddit and decided to go with 2 flavours – Banana and Coffee Caramel. I also ordered one Ready to Drink Huel. This one had a Berry flavour.

My package was delivered straight to my door and had some bonuses in it. A Shaker, 2 measuring spoons and a T-shirt of a fairly good quality. As soon as I opened the package i got super relieved. The reason is that even if this ends up to be my first and the last order, at least i now have 34 meals that will solve some of my problems and let me focus on more important things.

The first thing I tried was the Ready to Drink Huel (Berry flavour). It looked like a regular drinking yoghurt and tasted like it too, only slightly different, with a distinct oat taste. I can get used to that. Only one slight problem is that Ready to drink portion is twice as expensive as a regular “powder” Huel. So not a long term solution.

Then came dinner time and a made my first Banana shake. 2 spoons of powder and 500 ml of water and it’s ready! Cool, i thought. Then i tried it. I would be lying if i said it was good. I was bearable. It did taste like a banana, a real ripe one, not the candy sweetener banana. But it also tasted like chalk. Like a smoothie with banana and chalk. Oh well, it could be worse.

Then i mixed a shake for the next day. As it was a replacement for breakfast, i chose the Coffee Caramel this time. Same procedure again and put it in a fridge. The next morning i had a ready Huel waiting for me. Oh, but this one was worse. I did not taste any Caramel, but Coffee was definitely present. And some familiar “chalk” too. Still bearable but much worse than the Banana one.

Reddit suggests to mix the flavour you do not like with the one you do like, and it will get much better. It did. 

So it has been a few days of me replacing 2/3 of my meals with Huel and i definitely got more used to the taste. I started adding some cinnamon and coffee syrups in my shakes and they do taste better like that. My goal is not to eat 100% Huel. I do enjoy food quite a lot and would never say no to eating out with my husband or friends. So 2/3 Huel meals sounds reasonable to me.

I already made my next order and even subscribed to bi-weekly orders. I am excited and i hope that my cravings for shitty snacks will stop and i’ll be actually enjoying Huel instead. I am not there yet.

If you are also curious and want to give this Huel thing a try, consider using this link. This is not sponsored but if you use thins link with your first order, you will get a 100 kr discount (and i will too, so win-win).